Press Release

For our participation to Photofairs this year we have decided to show the combined work of threeWestern photographers, Andy Summers (UK), Brigitte Spiegeler(Netherlands), Dubravka Vidovic(Croatia), who have staged their work in China, while travelling or actually living in the country. Eachcaptured with their own technique and medium in a calm and reflective manner, a contemplativeatmosphere whether their photographs were taken indoor or outdoor. They all aim at suggestingmetaphors and a personal interpretation for the culture they are in.The camera first became guitarist Andy Summer's third eye as an exercise in watching when he begantaking pictures in the early days of the band Police. In China, he turned to following anonymous peopleand watching them individually, in remote places deep in the province. As a musician Andy wouldbecome fascinated by an 'Old men Band' he encountered in Yunnan, especially by the ancient stringinstruments they were playing more folksy and rustic than the common traditional Chinese musicalinstruments. His close-up observation or the old musicians faces, their strumming fingers is a poignantdemonstration of the power of photography to freeze on paper the time that passes.In her work Brigitte Spiegeler uses a black and white picture captured with a pinhole camera and acoloured pigment. Spiegeler’s works are about an imaginary time which only exists in our minds: in herwords “a time without a time, vague with some details popping up, the memory is now, right here, but atthe same time endlessly far away and intangible”. It seems as if the pigment was thrown onto thepicture plane only seconds ago and consequently from a contemporary context. The pigment, powderyor fluid while the rest of the picture remains undisturbed is hiding part of the picture from view but neverto the point of missing the major visual elements, which are brought up in nuances and layers like in athree-dimensional piece.Coming from a coastal town, Dubravka Vidovic sees the water as a main feature in her inner landscape,as an essential part of her memory for she has ‘sailed’ away from her native place nearly 20 years ago.In her series “Waves” Dubravka worked with vintage photographs of Chinese junk boats - taken inShanghai on the Huangpu River or the Suzhou Creek. Printed on silk then mounted on paper liketraditional Chinese scrolls, the folded part creates a series of waves which bring motion to the picture,putting a new life into it. Each image is an invitation to reviving old stories of travelers sailing to foreignshores and the reverie of a long journey at sea.